Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1887-10-08


There's no fear of iIl-iuck for you, my
| good fellow, you are so cautious.
1t would have been wise, sir to have
LEFT 1t as it fell until after the change
/ of the moon"
Ludwig gave a growl of contempt
My good man, / would not be such a
moonstruck lunatic. Take the pieces
away"
Bertha admired him more than ever,
as every girl admires a brave man. 1t
| seemed such q daring deed to be the
one to pick up that mirror; she mistooz
his common sense for bravery.
Your grandfather is dying Of sheer
fright" the young man went on step
ping out on the terrace, and leading the
I girl with him. "Ihe omen Will come
true if the fear of it kills him..
/ "But, dear Ludwig" said the girl,
/ leaning on the balustrade, and feeling
helplessly ignorant as she looked up at
her wise lover, and loved him the more
for the mans superior wisdom eve
! should all like not to believe in the
| omen but what could have knocked the
I mirror down.
1t was indeed puzzling. The nails
/ that had held that mirror were as long
/ as a mans hand They had been buried
/ in the wall like shafts of iron, and out
| of the wall they had dragged them
/ selves, after being for fifty years safe
| and firm. Bertha herself had been in the
/ draWing-rOom, singing GounOd's "Sere-
/ made, with her tilIIce leaning against
( the piano, watching the light from the
| candles making a halo about her fair
/ hair, and the old baron was doing IN
/ his chair with the dog at his feet, when
I all at once. with no hand near 1t, the
! great mirror had dragged its nails out
/ of the opposite wall, and crashed down
/ upon the floor. The dog had howled
/ and barked, the servants had rushed in,
and In the midst of the confusion the
/ old mans voice had said, with a trem-
/ BILE
my hour has comet"
| His strength had failed; he had been
/ confined to his room; he was dying.
/ When Ludwig and Bertha walked
/ along the terrace, they hushed their
| steps near those open windows farther
/ on than the old drawing-rOom.
! "He Is awake again, said Ludwig,
| looking into the curtained gloom. go
| to him, Bertha if you like, and I can
/ have a smoke in the garden. You might
ask him about the will. "
"But I don't want him to die Lud-
wig"
"AIy poor little Bertha, what strange
/ things they have taught you'll He won't
I die a moment sooner because he makes
a will 1t is the right thing to do.
/ Whatever Ludwig said was right, was
( supremacy right always to the lonely,
1 half-taught girl; so as she sat beside
| the death-bed that evening, she ten
| DERBY and gently cOaxed the old man to
| leave his last wishes written down.
/ Ludwig was called in from the garden,
where his cigar had been glimmering
under the hndens, and they sent for
/ the village notary and the butler was
| thu witness.
1t was we'll the viii was made that
/ night. The old baron was dead before
| morning.
Then how the idlers at the Golden
| Dragon" talked, and how all the vii
| lage whispered and shuddered! Well
/ a few months after, Ludwig Schmidt
| owned the castle, and Bertha was hi
| wife, and it was to be hoped NOTHING
more would jump down from the wall
/ to give mortals q warning.
! The gloomy Fritz Hartmann was
/ more gloomy than ever. Martha swept
| the cottage and played with the child
/ but he grumbled at his poverty, and
the child shrank from his black looks.
He was at the old notary's house every
night now.
"Are you selling him carving, Fritz p
said Martha. "Why, we shall be rich o.
Fritz Hartmann was going out of tho
| uotary's before he had even tasted g
bit after his work.
II am doing some carving theTe-a.
the house, Of a night. We may be
r.ch-if we are, it is only my Just right,
and thanks to nobody"
This was q strange way of talking OF
wOod-carving. Martha wondered an,
| PUZZLED while she was taking of brigh
haired Gretchen's strong little shoes
and putting her to bed. Well, after all
il was the lust right Of q workman to
get the value of his work perhaps that
was what Fritz meant. But Fritz muSi
be making q great deal of money now
Why, he had gone up to the castle T.
the middle of the day to mend a broker
part of the Swiss clOck-case.
When Fritz Hartmann reached til.
notary's house, he forgot that there was
any such thing as carving in the world
unless it be carving out a fortune. Nc,
! there lCns some carving to be done, and
he might be rich. The old notary and
, | Hartmann walked in the garden by the
colored spires of hollyhock flowers
. They smoked and talked of the time oil
- Hartmann's father, and how the old
notary knew him we'll, and how there
8 had been a quarrel.
mo one IN the village knows ?" asked
the old lawyer keenly.
"No one-L am a good gaOler to keel
t secrets fast"
'But it is time, said the notary.
Your case is safe. The old baron was
almost dead. 1 was called in to make
, the viii by the man to whom the prop
! erty was willsd. His defence would
not have leg to stand on"
1t was very strange thing that
5 while those two men were talking
: by the hollyhOeks, considering the
j future lawsuit which was to make the
2 Schwartzberg Castle change owners, at
the castle itself the evil omen came
again. In the old tapestried drawing
3 room young Schmidt was telling his
E tale, leaning over the back of his little
wife's chair, after a days shooting. On
! the wall opposite to the windows
there was only the sOftly-shaded
/ tapestry; but at one end of the room
there was the portrait of Bertha, in
been hung there instead Of the broken
mirror.
! All at once the portrait dragged the
long nails from the wall, and fell face
downward on the polished floor.
Even Ludwig Schmidt, man as he
I was, turned pale, and stood unable to
: stir in the dead silence after the crash.
Then seeing his young wife's head sink
7